Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ability_n	able_a	world_n	45	3	3.9426	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67085	The key of saving knovvledge, opening out of the holy Scriptures, the right way, and straight passage to eternall life, or, A dialogue wherein the chiefe principles of the Christian religion are unfolded for the enabling of Christian people, to understand the Word of God ... composed by Geo. Walker ...	Walker, George, 1581?-1651.	1641 (1641)	Wing W360; ESTC R39413	43,048	124

1 Tim. 26. and by him all things are said to consist Coloss. 1. 17. Quest How can Christs vertue reach to them who are a far off Aliens and Strangers from him and enemies to his Crosse and sufferings Answ. It reacheth to them not immediatly by vertue of union with him as it doth to the Faithfull but after a secondary manner for his Elects sake For Christ by his mediation hath obteined of God that all the World which was made for mans use should be upheld by his generall providence that the Heavens and the Sun Moon and Stars should keep their course and continue in their naturall being and give light and influence to the good and the bad the just and unjust and that the Aire the Earth and the Sea should breed and nourish living creatures and herbes plantes fruit-trees and all other things usefull for men yea the wicked prosper and flourish in wealth and strength either that they may be a wall of defence to the Elect which live among them or that they may build houses plant vineyards and subdue the Earth for them as the cursed Canaanites did for Israel or that they may be progenitors and instruments to bring forth an elect seed as our fore-fathers the Heathen Gentiles were to us their Christian progeny or for the punishing and correcting of the sins of the elect as the Canaanites were kept alive to punish the Israelites when they sinned and for the tryall and exercise of their Faith and patience by unjust persecution Christ by his Mediation hath procured all these things for his elects sake to all creatures which otherwise should have perished with man being all stained and corrupted by his sin And hence it is that he is said to beare up the pillars of the world when the earth and the inhabitants thereof are dissolved Psal. 75 3. And thus farre we may grant and acknowledge an universall grace which Christ by his Mediation hath procured to all the world even to the wicked reprobates which perish Quest Hath not Christ procured to all man-kind grace and ability to beleeve repent and be saved if they will do as much as they are able for the obteining of regeneration and other saving graces of the Spirit Answ. No certeinely For Regeneration Effectuall calling Faith and all saving Graces are purchased and given by Christ only to the Elect for whom alone he prayed and doth still make intercession And they also while they remaine in the common state of Nature have no power in themselves either to will or to do any work truly good but are dead in trespasses and sins Ephes. 2. 1. They are aliens and enemies in their minds and all their thoughts incline to evill Colos. 1. 21. If all men even they who perish had power and liberty of will to beleeve and be saved certeinely some of them who are not elect would beleeve and be regenerate and use their liberty to the saving of their soules For it is given for that end that it might be brought into act and take effect if it never doth it is given by God in vaine But Nature as the Philosophers observed never gives power in vaine and much more doth the God of Nature abhorre to give men a vaine power which never comes into act Quest If it be not in their power to do any worke tending to life nor to beleeve and repent why are they condemned for infidelity impenitency and omission of good works Answ. Though they cannot beleeve nor repent to salvation yet they have a power left by common grace to use the meanes which lead to Faith and Repentance as hearing of the Word reading the Scriptures hearkning to Reproofes and to good admonitions and exhortations and this naturall power they refuse to exercise and wickedly and wilfully neglect and reject those outward meanes Also by their sin in Adam they have disabled themselves are become froward and averse from all actions truly good and are a cursed generation justly condemned Quest How come the Elect to bee redeemed and saved by the Mediation of Christ seeing they by nature have no more interest in Christ than others Answ. They are redeemed and saved by the most gracious supernaturall working of God in them according to his eternall Counsel Purpose and Decree For as he hath ordeined them to eternall life in Christ before the foundation of the world so it doth in the time appointed gather them to himselfe in and by the Lord Iesus Christ Quest By what meanes doth God worke saving grace in them Answ. By the Ministery and Preaching of his holy Word which is a worke of the Propheticall office of Christ For by that Word spoken to the Elect Fathers of old in Dremes Visions and Apparitions and after spoken and written by Moses the Prophets and Holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and since by the mouth of Christ and his Apostles Evangelists and their successors hee hath revealed and doth continually reveale himselfe to them in Christ teacheth them the onely right way to salvation cals upon them and invites them by gracious promises to come unto him and by the threatenings of the Law he drives them out of themselvs discovers their sins and the dangerous estate in which they are by reason of sinne and suffers them to find no place wherein to rest untill like Noahs dove they flee unto his Arke the true Church Quest Can the Word Preached bring men to Christ and to salvation in him Answ. It is the only outward ordinary meanes which God useth for that purpose and we never read of any who without the word beleeved were called effectually to Christ and saved All Heathen Infidels Turks and Pagans who either never heard the Word Preached or hearing do refuse and reject it do undoubtedly perish in their unbeliefe For he that beleeveth not is condemned already John 3. 18. and without the Word heard none can beleeve Rom. 10. 14. Quest What then shall wee thinke of infants borne of beleeving parents which dye before they heare or are able to beleeve the Word Answ God teacheth and inclineth them inwardly by his Spirit to long after Christ and to grope after him as they do after their mothers breasts for milk and bodily nourishment but yet not without the Word For by the Word preached to their Fathers hee workes Faith in them and makes his covenant of life in Christ with them and their seed and so by the Ministery of the Word their infants come to be in the Covenant And God doth often times sanctifie them by his Spirit from the wombe as we read of Jeremy and John the Baptist or in their baptisme at the Prayers of his Church And therefore we ought charitably to beleeve and judge that children of beleeving parents as they are from the wombe holy by dedication 1 Cor. 7. 14. and capable of baptisme so are inwardly baptized by the Spirit into Christ and if they dye

noysom weeds plants Lastly it brought all mankind in bondage to death both temporal wch is such a corruption of the body as doth separat the soule frō it make it utterly unfit for the soule to lodge in and also eternall which is the punishment of him with eternall destruction from the presence of God and from the glory of his power Quest Is there any hope of deliverance from this foule staine guilt of sins and from death and all evill of wrath which are the fruits and effects of it Answ. There is no hope of deliverance in any thing which mans wit and reason can devise or man by his art skil and power can performe All creatures in the world can yield him no help God only of his infinit mercy free grace love and kindnesse to man-kind hath from all eternity ordeined an all-sufficient Saviour and Redeemer even his only begotten son who immediatly after mans sin and fall did undertake for man staid the execution of the sentence and punishment of death and was promised to become the seed of the woman and by suffering death and all the punishments due to sin in our nature to redeeme man-kind from sin and death and to destroy the Devill who had the power of death and to dissolve all his workes Quest Who is this Son of God which did undertake to redeeme man Answ. It is the Lord Iesus Christ who was first promised under the name of the seed of the woman Gen. 3. 15. which should break the serpents head and afterward was promised to Abraham Isaac and Jacob under the name of the blessed seed in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed And to David and by the Prophets by the name of Messiah that is the annoynted Saviour of the seed of David And at last in the fulnesse of the time when hee was made flesh tooke our nature upon him and was borne of a Virgin did beare the name of Iesus and is now preached and made knowne to the world under the name of the Lord Iesus Christ Quest Why did not Christ come in the flesh in the beginning or first age of the world and worke mans redemption that the Fathers who lived under the old Testament might bee redeemed and saved by him as we now are under the Gospell Answ. The Incarnation of Christ and all things which he did and suffered for our redemption in the dayes of his flesh were present with God from all eternity as all times and all things which come to passe in all times past present and to come are continually present with him and were as effectuall to satisfie his justice appease his wrath and to purchase and procure perfect salvation to men at his hands as they are now ever since they were actually performed And through Christ promised God did shed his Spirit on the Fathers of old as hee now doth on us through Christ given and exhibited and by the Spirit united them to him in one spirituall body and wrought in them Faith by which they did as it said of Abraham see the day of Christ beleeve in him were partakers of all his benefits and were made conformable to him both in his death and life by mortification and sanctification Quest Why did Christ come and satisfie for sinfull men in the mids of yeares between the times of the Old and New Testament Answ. Because that was the most fit and seasonable of all times for man-kind for divers reasons First if he had appeared in the first ages of the world the memory of him would have been worne out For as the people of the Gentiles within a few ages forgot the promises of Christ made to Adam Noah and Sem and lost the knowledge of them so men would have forgotten Christ and all his doings and sufferings long ago for the world loveth changes and loathing old things seeketh after novelties Secondly the deferring of Christs comming held the world in suspence and expectation with promises from age to age still more plainely renued that after much longing his comming might be so much more welcome and men might with greater joy receive him Thirdly the world increasing in sin and corruption and being growne so hard that weaker meanes and obscurer revelation could worke litle upon men it was Gods Wisdome to reserve the appearance of Christ and the publishing of the powerfull Gospell for these latter evill days as being the fittest meanes for these harder times Fourthly if Christ in our nature had made satisfaction in the first ages of the world and had paid our ransome so many ages before wee were borne or had our being it had not been so equall and proportionable to justice as now it is by reason of his comming in the midst of yeares between the Old and the New Testament For by this meanes Gods forbearance of the ransome and satisfaction for the sinnes of the Fathers before Christs death is recompensed with payment of our debt and making a full satisfaction for our sinnes as much before hand even many ages before our committing of sinne or running in debt to his Majesty in our own persons Lastly it was necessary that many of the members of his elect and faithfull Church should by the Spirit bee united to him and by Faith have Communion with him before and at his comming appearing in the flesh that being the head of the Church actually through them He might by Cōmunion and imputation of the sins of so great a body multitude justly suffer the punishments due to the sins of his people even of them who were in after ages to grow up into the same mystical body by the same Spirit If he had beene borne in the beginning of the world before the Church of the Old Testament had any actuall being he could not have been the actuall head of the body nor united to the Church which as yet was not in being and so could not have borne the sins of his Church nor justly suffered the punishment of them Therefore the Apostle very fitly cals the time of Christs comming in the flesh the fulnesse of time that is the time most seasonable Gal. 4 4. Quest What have you learned concerning Christs person needfull to be knowne and beleeved Answ. I have learned That as he was the eternall Son of God one and the same God and of the same nature and substance with the Father and the Spirit hee did undertake according to Gods eternall Counsell to bee the Mediator between God and man and to mediate for man from the day of his fall and as hee was promised to bee the Seed of the woman so hee did in fulnesse of time assume and take into personall union with himselfe the whole nature and substance of a man and was made of the seed of Abraham and David in the womb of a Virgin of their seed a man like unto us in all things but without sin even

beleeving applying of Christs righteousnes to themselves is the justifying act of Faith And whereas the historicall saith of Devils and carnall men is only an assent unto the Word of God that it is true arising from carnal reason and arguments convincing the judgement without any affection to the truth or any relying on it On the contrary every act of beleeving any word or promise of God if it proceeds from a true Faith in the elect is not a naked assent ruled by humane and naturall reason but guided by Gods Spirit and joyned with a relying on God and his Word upon the Divine authority of the speaker and may be brought as an evidence of their salvation may in that respect be called a saving beliefe as we see at large Heb. 11. where beleeving that the worlds were framed by the Word of God And that God would bring a flood upon the world and destroy all except them that were in the Arke made by his appointment and that he would give the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham the Israelites and after 400 yeares deliver them out of Aegypt and such like acts of beleeving proceeding from an holy spirituall Faith are declared to bee saving Faith Quest How doth actuall beleeving set a work all other graces and increase them more and more in the Elect regenerate and justified Answ. By the sense feeling and sweet fruition of Christ and his righteousnesse satisfaction and intercession it brings us to the sight and experimentall knowledge of the goodnesse bounty love and mercy of God to us in Christ And being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and hereby the holy Ghost sheddeth the love of God abroad in our hearts so that being inflamed with the love of God wee begin more and more to hate and abhorre our owne vile corruptions and sins which are offensive to his holy Majesty We are ashamed and confounded because we have by our sins so often provoked so gracious a God and mercifull Father wee grieve and mourne and sorrow with godly sorrow to repentance wee strive and wrastle against our lusts and by the assistance of the Spirit tame and subdue them so that sinne can no more reigne in our mortall bodies we contend to sollow hard after God to cleave to him in love and to bee still more more united to Christ in love and zealous affection of heart And in holinesse and newnesse of life we study and strive to be conformable to his image and in a word we are stirred up to use all care and endeavour that wee may abound in all good works and still forgetting those things which are behind may reach forth unto those things which are before and presse hard towards the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus In all which workes of saving grace as God moves us by his Spirit so we being moved enabled and made a free people do cooperate and work together with him till we come to the measure of the age of the fulnesse of Christ and be fitted to see God in glory Quest What outward meanes are to bee used whereby the Spirit of God may worke in the Elect and beget and increase Faith and beliefe with all other saving graces in them Answ. The chiefe outward meanes is the Word of God without which God doth not ordinarily shed his Spirit on them beget them again and by his Spirit work saving grace and the works of grace in them For they are borne again of incorruptible seed that is of the Spirit by the Word of God 1 Pet. 1. 23. and regeneration which is Gods shedding of the holy Ghost on them through Christ and the first saving worke even the ground worke of all other saving graces is not to be found where the Word is not Preached By the Word of Christ the holy Gospell only the Spirit speaks inwardly to mens hearts and leads them into all truth John 16. 13. By the Word preached hee begets Faith for Faith commeth by hearing and none can beleeve except heheare Rom. 10. 14 17. The Word is the whole and perfect rule of Faith and whatsoever the elect beleeve to salvation is conteined in the Word and there only to be learned John 3. 39. The threatenings of the Law are the meanes by which the Spirit discovers to beleevers the danger of sin and their own misery humbles them in their own eies and drives them out of themselves to Christ by repentance The precepts of the Law prescribe to them the right way in which they ought to walk and is a lamp to their feet and light to their steps Psa. 119 105. The Word of the Gospell is the Covenant of life and sets before them the goodnesse bounty love and mercy of God in Christ and by it the Spirit inflames them with the love of God with joy and delight in God and with zeale for his glory and stirres them up to imitate God in works of mercy love and charity and in all holinesse and sanctification till they be conformed to Christ and to serve honour and worship God And in a word the whole Scripture which is the sure infallible Word of God given by Divine inspiration is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction and for instruction in righteousnes that the man of God may bee perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3. 16. 17. Quest How must the Word of God bee used that it may be such an effectuall meanes of the Spirit to worke all these gracious effects in Gods elect people Answ. It must not only be read out of the Sacred Scriptures in which it is recorded by the Prophets and Apostles but also preached and expounded by godly able and learned Ministers who are called and sent of God Rom. 10. 15. For they are Gods watchmen who have a charge given to watch for mens soules Ezek. 3. 17. Heb. 13. 17. They are his Shepheards and Overseers to feed his flock with his Word the Bread of Life Act. 20. 28. Ezek. 34. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Ephes. 4. 11. And by delivering Gods message faithfuly they obteine this honour to themselves to bee called the Angels of the Lord Mal. 2. 7. and Gods Ambassadours 2 Cor. 5. 20. and to be spirituall Fathers under God who beget children to God in Christ by the Gospell 1 Cor. 4. 15. Quest What other meanes are to be used Answ None but such as God hath prescribed in his holy Word to wit the Sacraments which are seales annexed to the Word publike Prayers Invocation and Worship of God And also good education and private Prayers and instruction and often reading of Gods Word alone and in private Families Quest What is a Sacrament Answ. It is a religious action prescribed by God in which by using outward visible rites consecrated to be signes seales pledges and

remembrances of the invisible graces promised and given in Christ the Covenant of grace is sealed to his people their Faith confirmed and all holy graces stirred up quickened and increased in them Quest How many Sacraments are now in use under the Gospell Answ. There are but two properly so cald and ordeined to be seales of the whole Covenant of Grace Baptisme and the Lords Supper For these two are expresly commanded and commended by our Saviour to the Church in the Gospell and to every true member thereof There are divers other signes pledges and remembrances of benefits and blessings past or to come but they either do not belong to all Christians as imposition of hands in ordeining Pastors and Elders is proper to them who are so ordeined Or els beside their signification they have other more principall uses as the weekely Sabbath besides that it is a pledge of the eternall rest in Heaven and a signe that God is our God who doth sanctifie us It serves chiefly to be the first fruits of our time and is to be spent wholly in the worship of God publike and private preaching and hearing of the Word Prayer and other Religious exercises by which God is immediatly served and our soules edified So also holy Feasts and Dayes which are remembrances of some great blessings as Easter Pentecost the dayes of Christs Nativity Passion and Ascension besides their signification have other far more principall use to wit the solemne worship and service of God such as is used on the Sabbath and therefore they are called holy Signes and Sacraments improperly and in a secondary sense But Baptisme and the Eucharist serve only for Signes Seales and Pledges and have no other notable use Quest What is the Sacrament of Baptisme Answ. It is an outward washing of the body with pure water applyed therto by dipping or sprinkling ordeined by God to be a Sacrament that is a Signe Seale and Pledge of regeneration to the party baptized by which outward rite hee is received into the true visible Church and dedicated to Christ to bee a member of his body and a faithfull servant of God all the dayes of his life Quest To whom doth this Sacrament belong Answ. It belongs to all that are either borne in the Church of God or by the Word preached are called to beleeve in Christ and to professe true Christian Religion after they are come to yeares of discretion Quest What warrant have Gods Ministers to baptize Infants and to give them the Signe Seals and Pledge of Regeneration which a great number of them that are borne in the Church never have but are reprobates and shew themselves so to be by living in sin all their dayes and dying in impenitency Answ. They have sufficient warrant in the Word of God For the Apostle saith that children of beleeving parents are not uncleane but holy 1 Cor. 7. 14. that is they are so far within the Covenant being in their infancy as it were members of their beleeving parents and wholy at their disposing that they may justly bee dedicated to God by Baptisme as Samuel was by his mothers vow and received into the true Church The vow which their parents and guardians made for them in baptisme is a band to tye them to serve God so soon as they begin to have knowledge and discretion Certeinly Gods grace and bounty towards Infants of Christian Parents under the Gospell is not straitened more than to Infants in the Old Testament whose males were Circumcised the eight day after their birth Baptisme and the promise and Vow therein ma●e for them is as powerfull a meanes and motive to provoke them from their youth to serve God as Circumcision was to the children of Israel Also Christ hath taught us that his blessing the Kingdom of eaven belongs to them Marc. 10. 13. And the Apostles baptized whole housholds of beleeving men and women not refusing any children as we read of Lydias and the Iaylors houshold Acts 16. 15. 33. In a word many who were at full age called by the Gospel preached to beleeve by a temporary carnall saith and to professe Christ were never truly regenerate as Judas Simon Magus Demas and others but proved hypocrites and backsliding reprobates and yet this was never counted a just cause to hinder or restraine the Apostles from baptizing al who professed Christ outwardly for feare of prophaning the Sacrament of Baptisme and abusing the holy ordinance of Christ Quest How doth the Spirit of God by Baptisme increase grace in men and set it a worke Answ. So often as they are put in minde of their Baptisme either by the name of Christians or their owne proper names given in Baptisme when they are called by them or by seeing others baptized the Spirit of God doth thereby as by a sure pledge assure the Faithfull that God is their Father and they are his children in his Son Christ borne againe of the Spirit and so confirmes their Faith in that communion which they have with God the Father and his Son Iesus Christ hereby he stirs them up to remember that their endeavour ought to be to walke in newnesse of life as new creatures adopted to God called unto Christ out of the world mortified and dead to the world and sinfull lusts and sanctified to lead a godly life in all righteousnesse and true holynesse Quest What is the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Answ. It is that holy ordinance instituted by Christ after his last Supper in which by Bread and Wine consecrated with blessing and giving of thankes and by the publike Minister given and distributed and received eaten and drunk by the people assembled Christ God and Man their Redeemer together with all his obedience and full satisfaction made and performed in the dayes of his humiliation in the forme of fraile flesh and bloud is signified and sealed to them and in greater measure given and of them received by Faith as a spirituall nourishment to feed their soules to life eternall Quest Is Christ given to all and received of all who partake of this Sacrament Answ. He is Sacramentally given that is the true signes and pledges of him are given to all and of them received but he is not spiritually given to any but true beleevers and worthy receivers Neither do any effectually receive him or his benefits to the feeding of their soules but only they who lay hold on him by a lively working Faith For the giving receiving eating drinking is not carnall but spirituall as our Saviour himselfe sheweth John 6. 63. saying It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speake they are spirit and they are life Quest Why doth Christ call the Bread given and eaten his Body and the Wine his Bloud if hee be not in them bodily present and his Flesh and Bloud given and received bodily Answ. The true reason of his speaking so is to call our thoughts to the